Castration of male cattle is performed routinely for management reasons, but causes significant pain without adequate analgesia. Improving pain management practices is a key welfare priority in beef production.
Castration without analgesia causes severe and unnecessary pain for affected cattle. Research using cortisol measurements, pain scoring and behavioural analysis consistently demonstrates that all methods of castration cause significant acute pain. Rubber ring castration causes a distinctive pattern of pain as ischaemia develops, with high cortisol persisting for 4-6 hours. Surgical castration causes immediate acute pain that persists as wound pain. The scale of cattle castration - millions of animals annually in the UK alone - means that this is a welfare problem with enormous aggregate significance. The availability of effective, affordable pain relief means that there is no justification for performing castration without analgesia.